27 June 1935 – Eva Coo

The American earned an electrifying ending after she stopped at nothing in her acquisition of other people’s wealth.

Some sources said she owned a brothel, while others said she’d been paid to look after her victim – a handyman.

If Coo’s role was the latter, her employment was to be a deadly mistake.

Some carer she turned out to be. She showed no regard for her defenceless victim, whose name was Henry Wright, or Harry to his friends. He had learning difficulties, which made him a very easy target.

Wright’s stuff

When Wright’s mum died, he inherited the family wealth, but not for long. Coo set about spending his money and when that had run dry, she set fire to his house so she could pocket the insurance payout.

Having burned the house from under Wright’s feet and having stripped him of his riches, what else was left for Coo to take? Life insurance, that’s what.

Wright to life

In no time, she’d loaded him right up to hilt with policies galore, then conspired with a cohort, Martha Clift, to kill him.

The poor bloke didn’t have a hope in hell against these two harpies. Coo took a mallet to his head, then Clift drove over him in their car – hardly the stuff of accidents.

Needless to say, the police were suspicious and hauled the two women in for questioning, where Clift was tipped over the edge and came clean about the scam.

Cooped up

Clift was cooped up with a life sentence in return for stitching up her gold-digging mate, who took the lion’s share of the rap.

The murderous mercenary was convicted of killing Wright and the sentence was death.

Despite protesting her innocence, Coo entered New York’s electrocution hall of infamy, alongside the likes of Martha Place, when Sing Sing dumped her on Old Sparky, just a few days after she turned 46.